Shingeki no Tears
by TremblingHands
Summary: "Holy Potato he was with somebody, wasn't he?" Sasha suddenly blurted. Eren felt his ears grow warm...


**Disclaimer:** I do not own Shingeki no Kyojin ( '-')... R&R would be much appreciated. So would Reads & Reviews.

* * *

 **The Tale is Told**

"The hell are you talking about now, Jaeger?"

"Heichou dammit. I'm – I wasn't going to mention it to anybody coz it seemed mighty personal y'know? But… I just think that…" he took in a deep breathe to calm himself down. It wouldn't do much good if he got into it with Jean now. Intent on ignoring Jean completely, Eren continued,

"I was going through the rooms you guys were assigned to, for inspection y'know?"

"You what?!"

"What the hell, Jaeger?!"

"Eren, I can't believe you would do that."

"I'm sorry guys, but you know how high Heichou's standards are when it comes to cleaning. But that's beside the point, what I'm getting at is-"

"Like hell it is! Is that how little faith you have in our abilities? You don't even think we could do something as simple as cleaning a fuckin' room wi-"

"Let Eren finish."

"Huh?"

"I said, let Eren finish."

Jean relented at Mikasa's request, his face turning beet red with jealousy and rage.

"Anyway," Eren began, grateful for once at Mikasa's intervention, "I was going through the third-floor rooms, the last one on the left-"

"That was my room, I was assigned to clean it and hell if I did'n-"Connie's voice died down as the temperature around them suddenly dropped from the icy stare Mikasa threw his way.

"Right," Eren started again, "but as I turned into it, I noticed Heichou standing near the back of the room and I was about to leave when I noticed…" he hesitated again. He really was unsure if sharing this with the others was alright. He remembered the few times it had happened to him, how Mikasa said she wouldn't bring it up again, how he'd felt when she did-

"Well? What was it, Eren?" Reiner asked excitedly.

"Yeah, Jaeger, c'mon, the suspense is killing me." Ymir lamely added from where she lay stretched out across Krista's lap.

"Holy Potato he was with somebody, wasn't he?" Sasha blurted suddenly. This caused an outburst of conversation between everybody and Eren felt his ears grow warm at the thought of his upstanding Heichou, the man he admired, acting in such a disorderly fashion.

"No!" he exclaimed, feeling rather offended at the fact that they would actually think that, "he wasn't with anybody, he was alone! He was alone and…" his next words came out in a rush when he saw the look of absolute, scandalous glee in Sasha's eyes, "and he was crying!" he finished, standing up so abruptly that the box he was sitting on skittered across the grassy floor.

There was silence in the shady corner of the grounds the newest recruits of the Survey Corps occupied. The revelation- so unexpected and unbelievable that even nature had been shocked to silence- hung in the air. The birds were the first to recover. They squawked as if in indignation at the ridiculous confession and flew away. Eren glanced around nervously, sure that his voice had been too loud and any minute now Heichou would show up with bloody vengeance and a broom. Armin recovered next. "Well," he began awkwardly "I suppose it's only natural for someone to cry eventually after facing so much trauma."

Diplomatic as always. Eren sighed in relief. Sasha, who looked mildly disappointed that she'd been wrong, let out a huff and –clearly disinterested now- agreed with Armin.

"Are you sure about this, Eren?" Krista asked softly.

He nodded. "Yes, I didn't stay long but he was unmistakably crying. Snuffling and wiping away the tears."

"You aren't really one for gossip, Eren. Why are you telling us all this?" Bertholdt asked.

"Because… I think we should- we should do something about it."

"Do something about it?" Jean finally said. "Are you insane? Or, do you expect us to just walk right up to him and be like, "oh, Heichou, pleasant day we're having today don't you think, or can you not see it through the tears in your eyes?"".

"Ha, he might've been crying at the state of what Connie considers "clean"." Reiner laughed, winking at Connie.

"Maybe he was crying over a bad break up?" Connie said promptly, still holding on to the idea of his superior officer having relations with another human.

"Oooh! Who do you think it was?" Sasha, eyes alight with interest again, asked.

"Petra-san?" Connie suggested. The others didn't bother trying to stop them. They knew a fruitless battle when they saw one, especially with those two, there was no stopping them once the wheels were turning. Ignoring Connie and Sasha, they continued.

"Why do you think he would've been crying anyway? In the middle of cleaning no less." Krista asked.

"I dunno, I get pretty close to tears when I see my assigned chore duties but… even so, I get the feeling Levi-heichou isn't the type to cry over having to do chores at least, not in the way I do." Reiner stated, arms crossed and eyes closed which indicated his contribution to the conversation was over.

" _Erwin?"_

" _Hm, possibly, but their relationship strikes me more as loyal hound and doting…"_ Connie and Sasha's conversation continued steadily in the background.

"I think we can all agree that asking him is out of the question," Jean said.

" _Yeah, puppies do get rather heartbroken when their masters' abandon them. I remember this one time…"_

"I'm not sure about that." Krista replied. "We don't want to start any rumours by snooping around."

" _Hanji-san?"_

" _Nah, doesn't really seem his type, y'know."_

" _I think she's probably just his type, what man doesn't like a challenge?"_

"Yeah," Ymir agreed "I sure as hell don't wanna have to answer for curiosity gone out of hand. I've heard how he goes about trying to prove a point, eh, Eren? I don't wanna know how he deals out punishment" she sat up and leaned into Krista, "and I sure as hell can't have him laying a hand on my precious Krista here." she said.

" _No way! Maybe it was one of the recruits! Any relationship would be too risky to maintain with everybody in such close quarters but… who would have the balls to break Heichou's heart?"_

Krista –blushing furiously- gently pushed Ymir away and straightened her uniform as Eren spoke up.

"You're right, Krista." Eren said, his usual determination and shounen willpower shining in his eyes again and creeping into his voice. Mikasa shifted slightly.

"Which is why we're going to have to do better than just snooping. We're going to stealthily investigate the cause to Heichou's grief."

"What do you have in mind, Eren?" Armin asked. He felt uneasy about the whole thing. But he knew Eren greatly admired the man- and probably meant well, so he would go along with whatever his best friend decided, he'd made up his mind.

Jean, arms folded across his chest now too, snorted. "Who the hell made you team leader?"

"You can decide for yourself whether or not you want to help out, Jean. Nobody here is pressuring you into doing anything you don't want to." Eren stated evenly.

Jean scowled and looked away, right at Connie and Sasha –who had been eerily quiet for a while now- both staring at Mikasa with wide eyes. "The hell's wrong with you two?" he asked.

Ymir stretched and leaned back, head tilted toward the sky. "Count me out," she said "I don't care much for unnecessary wrong doing, and that guy creeps me out anyway."

"That's a shame, Ymir. You can count on me, Eren." Krista said with a smile.

"Me too." Reiner added quickly. Pushing off the fence and stretching.

"…but since I've got nothing better to do" Ymir added in the same breath, "I suppose I can just help Krista out."

There was a moment of charged tension in the air between Ymir and Reiner when Bertholdt suddenly spoke up, "I'm in."

"Great." Eren said, automatically assuming Mikasa was on board. "Then here's the plan…"


End file.
